Kohli was accompanied by his actor wife Anushka Sharma, his mother Saroj Kohli and his elder brother Vikas at the ceremony. Kohli is the third cricketer to be honoured with the Khel Ratna after batting legend Sachin Tendulkar (1997-1998) and former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (2007).

The world’s No.1 Test batsman as per the ICC rankings has been in stupendous form in the past three years though he missed out of the top award despite nominations in 2016 and 2017. The 29-year-old Kohli has 6147 runs in 71 Tests with 23 centuries and 9779 runs in 211 ODIs, including 35 tons. Kohli received the Arjuna award in 2013 and the Padma Shri last year.

Sharing the top honours with him was Chanu, who had received the Padma Shri earlier this year, was chosen for the Khel Ratna following her gold medal in 48kg category at the World Weightlifting Championships last year. She also bagged the yellow metal in this year’s Commonwealth Games but didn’t compete at the Asian Games due to injury.

While the Khel Ratna award carries a prize purse of Rs 7.5 lakh, the Arjuna awardees are given Rs 5 lakh each along with a citation. Besides the Khel Ratna and Arjuna awards, the President also gave away Dronacharya and Dhyan Chand awards to coaches, the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure awards, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy and Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar. The awards, like every year, copped a fair share of controversies with wrestler Bajrang Punia’s threat to take legal action over Khel Ratna snub being the most prominent one. he eventually backed down after meeting Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. Before this, the Sports Ministry struck off compound archery coach Jiwanjot Singh Teja’s name from the list of Dronacharya awardees due to a past case of indiscipline. Teja resigned from his position to express his angst.

The Dronacharya Award was presented to eight coaches this year, including cricket mentor Tarak Sinha and 39-year-old boxing coach C A Kuttappa, who was credited by Vijender Singh for his historic Olympic bronze in 2008.

The Dhyan Chand Award for lifetime sporting achievement was given to four former athletes.

Among the notable absentees was cricketer Smriti Mandhana, who was to receive the Arjuna award but is currently with the Indian women’s team on its tour of Sri Lanka.